How to turn an old shirt into a great scarf

Why to turn old clothes into something new

Every item in our closets has an environmental footprint. One doesn’t have to go thru the entire production process to see the impact. The most obvious are those related to the production of the yarn, washing and dyeing the yarn, and getting the sewn clothes into the stores. There may have been fertilizers and pesticides involved when the fabric is from yarns harvested from plants. It is well known that fertilizers and pesticides may affect groundwater. When the piece is from wool overgrazing may have occurred which may lead to soil loss, dust uptake and droughts. The material has to be washed prior to spinning. Thus, a valuable resource is used. Dyes may have toxic ingredients. The ready-to-wear clothes have to be transported into the stores meaning emissions.

Up-cycling, recycling, consigning help the environment, budget, …

The longer a piece is worn, the smaller its environmental footprint per wear becomes over time. When a piece doesn’t fit anymore, or it’s not so me anymore, I always give it a critical look. Can it be worn by another woman a second time around? If so, these pieces go to goodwill, a consignment or thrift store. It depends on the brand of the piece. Medium prize brands sell well in consignment stores, and they provide you some extra money for your fashion budget. Low price brands do well in thrift and charity stores. Thus, donating them gives you some good feeling about being resourceful. When you live in a university town, there may be even a free market. When your girlfriends have a similar size, a clothes swap party may be fun.

Check whether you can also up-cycle pieces

Some pieces won’t sell second hand, or may be just for a dollar at a yard sale, and only when you are lucky. These pieces may be nevertheless too precious to go to the landfill. My hubby’s silk Hawaiian shirt is one of these items. When decluttering his closet, this shirt didn’t make the cut to go back in. It was a right decision. I didn’t even remember when he wore it the last time. To be honest, I had already forgotten about the shirt. However, the silk fabric feels so precious and soft, I thought it would make a great scarf for staying warm. It wouldn’t add the bulk and itchiness of a wool infinity scarf.

Beautiful Hawaiian print silk Vintage Silk shirt from my husband’s closet. He hadn’t worn the shirt for years. The shirt has the colors of my leather coat. Thus, I got the idea to turn the shirt into an infinity scarf to wear with the coat

Instructions to make an infinity scarf from a silk shirt

Take a straight hem men’s silk shirt. Measure the length between the shirts hem and the armpit. Mark the length over the entire shirt either with soapstone or pins. I did it with pins as my soapstone didn’t work on the shirt.

Preparing the line for the cut with pins.

Cut along the marked line.

Cutting along the line marked here indicated by white pins. Make sure not to injure yourself with the pins when cutting. Use a tailor pair of scissors.

Cut off buttons, and if there is a pocket, split it off from the left side.

Photos illustrating the splitting off of the buttons (upper panel), and pocket from the left side of the shirt (middle panel), and the right side of the shirt and the pocket after splitting it off (bottom panel).

Fold the small side over along the full length of the former front and back of the shirt with the right side to the inside. Pin the hem along the cut line.

Cut off body part of the shirt folded over with the left side of the fabric outside and pinned along the former hem of the shirt.

Sew along the hem line making sure that the former hem can’t be seen when you turn the resulting tube’s inside out.

Sewing along the former hemline so it won’t be visible after turning the tube around

Turn the tube to the right and iron the tube so the seam is in the middle. This side will be the left side of your infinity scarf.

Tube turned on the right side (upper panel) and pinned ends

Now pin the ends of the tube together as far as possible for sewing them together on the left side (see photo). Make sure that you pin the future outside of the scarf together first. This means aim for the seam along the long side of the scarf being where you can’t pin the fabric together anymore. Sew the ends together as far as possible. There are two possibilities to close the rest. You can do an invisible closure by hand stitching it or just sewing it together on the right side as I did (see photo).

Finishing steps: Showing the remaining open seam (upper panel), closed seam using the sewing machine (middle), and ironing of the infinity scarf

Now your scarf is ready to go. Happy styling.

Do you up-cycle old clothes? I mean besides using old T-shirts for cleaning the house and shoes. Let me know what you up-cycled. I am curious.

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Welcome to High Latitude Style

Hi, I am Nicole Mölders, married, one cat, no kids, professor, author, fashion, and science enthusiast. I share how to turn fashion into style to look your best in midlife, and things about life at the Last Frontier. I am glad you are here.